THE INSPIRING STORY OF HOW THIS COMPANY BECAME A HUGE SUCCESS!

In just five years, Piktochart went from a web design agency to a huge start-up successes with seven million users. Ai Ching, co-founder and CEO, tells GRADUAN® how this Penang-based company charted its path to success.

By Mel Sim

If you’re unfamiliar with Piktochart, it is the first do-it-yourself infographic and visual platform that allows users to create their own images for communication, which are visually attractive as well as easily understood.

With more than seven million users (and growing every day) and reviews pouring in from all corners of the world for its easy-to-use services, you would think that this tech company is based in the usual “start-up realm” – that is, Silicon Valley. Nope – it is actually based right here in Malaysia, in Penang!

Piktochart started when Ai Ching, co-founder and CEO, decided to leave her corporate job to venture into the digital space.

“I started seeing infographics on news portals and was excited by the idea of letting people create visuals on their own without the help of a designer,” she shares.

Along with her business partner Andrea, the duo started out as a web design agency. Like most first-time entrepreneurs venturing into something new, it was all ground zero for Ai Ching and Andrea in the beginning.

“We didn’t know how to start or scale a business. We had no knowledge or experience trying to run a business! A lot of the things we know today are learned via trial and error.

Before long, Piktochart was getting noticed by the tech world for its unique DIY infographic platform.

Now in its sixth year, it has served users from all over the world – marketers using it to drive their marketing efforts, teachers creating visuals to complement their teaching, news portals and websites to engage their audiences, businesses to attract customers... the list goes on when it comes to Piktochart users.

To ensure that Piktochart stays ahead of the game, Ai Ching says it is essential for the company to have a proper foundation to scale. That and hiring the right people for Piktochart.

“We try to hire people capable of doing excellent work but also have the heart to care for one another. With that, there is a positive culture of trust and many great things can happen when people who are genuinely excited about visual design are put in the same space. It is our priority to serve our users with excellence than differentiating ourselves for the sake of differentiation.”

Check out Piktochart at www.piktochart.com

Share this article: